Real bad news story. Is this a full blown crisis for the NRL, see this timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... ssing.html

Real bad news story. Is this a full blown crisis for the NRL, see this timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... ssing.html

Maybe this time we'll be spared the black comedy of the Catholic Education Office threatening to withdraw their co-operation with the game due to what they consider to be the NRL's inadequate response as an institution to misconduct, partcularly of a sexual nature. The Catholic Education Office.

Oh, and on the telly last night before the Inglis story broke, an Aussie comic pointed out that an 'and finally... LOL' story about an tourist who went to the wrong room and got into bed with a couple would have been deemed a cause of outrage if an NRL player had been involved.

What Inglis has been accused of should not be tolerated. But has anyone got any stats to show there is a greater incidence of domestic violence or other criminal activity among the NRL playing roster than among the general population of men aged between 16 and 35?

Probably not but they aren't damaging the game, players stuffing up are. I think if you compared the number of people earning $250K+ a year with the "incidnet rates" of NRL players you would get an over representation stat.

Will be sad to see Inglis kicked out of the game, he is one of those very, very rare talents, but that is his doing. It is the foul smell that wafts over the game and lingers that I care about.

Fair points. But while comparing NRL players with $250k+ers (and that can't apply to all NRL players, surely?) might suggest they are over-represented, a comparison with young men of equivalent levels of education might tell a different story - and also suggest a possible long-term solution.

I think the NRL has two separate and serious problems here - how this is and how it looks. They should be aware of the media's angle, but if I were Gallop then I would hesitate before I accepted all their premises.